Women's Groups Call Attention To Pay Gap

January 25, 2001|By LISA CHEDEKEL; Courant Staff Writer

Women's groups from across the state converged on the Capitol Wednesday to call for shrinking the pay gap between men and women by strengthening discrimination laws, raising wages for female-dominated jobs, and creating programs to steer women into non-traditional occupations.

``This may sound like, `Oh my God, they're still talking about that [issue]? Well, we are still talking about it,'' said Leslie Brett, executive director of the state's Permanent Commission on the Status of Women, which sponsored the annual ``Making Women Visible Day.''

She cited federal statistics showing that the pay gap has narrowed by a fraction of a penny a year since 1963, when the Equal Pay Act was adopted. In 1999, for all women working full time, average earnings were about 72 cents to every dollar earned by a man. The gap for men and women in similar jobs is narrower.

``At this rate,'' Brett said, ``we could achieve pay equity by the year 2083. That's too long to wait.''

The commission, joined by other women's groups, set as a goal pressing for higher wages for Connecticut's child-care workers, who now earn $18,630 a year, on average. Brett compared that pay with the $33,130-a-year average salary of tree-nursery workers.

``We are, next to the clergy, the lowest-paid profession in this nation,'' said Beth Bye, head of the Connecticut Association for the Education of Young Children. She said the state will face a child-care staffing crisis in the next two years if the pay doesn't improve; agencies are unable to attract qualified workers for an anticipated 8,000 new jobs. Bye's group and others have been lobbying legislators to raise the pay of early-childhood workers in government-funded programs and to improve training programs.

Brett said a key problem in Connecticut is a ``segregated'' workforce that has many women holding lower-paying service or sales jobs. The commission plans to push for more funding for apprenticeship and job-training programs that will draw women into higher-paying fields, such as technology.

Also on the commission's agenda is changing laws so that employers are prohibited from maintaining pay differentials between women and men, or minorities and whites, who are in ``equivalent,'' but different, jobs. The official determination of which jobs are ``equivalent'' would be based on the skills and effort they require; exceptions would be made where pay differences are based on seniority or merit. Now, people who file discrimination complaints must show they earn less than their colleagues in the same or similar jobs, Brett said.

The commission deemed pay equity its first priority based on a poll last year that showed the issue was the top concern of Connecticut women. Other issues that women deemed important were access to affordable health care, retirement security and stronger gun safety laws.

Wednesday's gathering had more than 80 representatives from two dozen advocacy agencies wearing red sweaters and blazers to highlight the event. Each of the agencies offered up its own legislative agenda, with some focusing on preserving women's reproductive rights and others calling for more job-training and educational opportunities for women leaving welfare.